on duty, had to put up with but Lenten fair at the taverns. At length, having refitted, we sailed, in company with the Rayo frigate, with a convoy of three transports, freighted with a regiment for New Orleans, and several merchantmen, bound for the West Indies.

"The still vexed Bermoothes'-I arrived at them in a gale of wind, and I sailed from them in a gale of wind. What the climate may be in the summer I don't know; but during the time I was there, it was one storm after another.

"We sailed in the evening with the moon at full, and the wind a westnorth-west. So soon as we got from under the lee of the land, the breeze struck us, and it came on to blow like thunder, so that we were all soon reduced to our storm stay-sails; and there we were, transports, merchantmen, and men-of-war, rising on the mountainous billows one moment, and the next losing sight of every thing but the water and sky in the deep trough of the sea, while the seething foam was blown over us in showers from the curling manes of the roaring waves. But overhead, all this while, it was as clear as a lovely winter moon could make it, and the stars shone brightly in the deep blue sky; there was not even a thin fleecy shred of cloud, racking across the moon's disk. Oh, the glories of a northwester !"

"The devil seize such glory!" said Bang. "Glory, indeed! with a fleet of transports, and a regiment of soldiers on board! Glory! why, I daresay five hundred rank and file, at the fewest, were all cascading at one and the same moment,-a thousand poor fellows turned outside in, like so many pairs of old stockings. Any glory in that? But to proceed."

"Next morning the gale still continued, and when the day broke, there was the frigate standing across our bows, rolling and pitching, as she tore her way through the boiling sea, under a close-reefed maintopsail and reefed foresail, with topgallant yards and royal masts, and every thing that could be struck with safety in war time, down on deck. There she lay with her clear black bends, and bright white streak, and long tier of cannon on the main-deck, and the carronades on the quarter-deck

and forecastle grinning through the ports in the black bulwarks, while the white hammocks, carefully covered by the hammock-cloths, crowned the defences of the gallant frigate fore and aft, as she delved through the green surge, one minute rolling and rising on the curling white crest of a mountainous sea, amidst a hissing snow-storm of white spray, with her bright copper glancing from stem to stern, and her white canvass swelling aloft, and twenty feet of her keel forward occasionally hove into the air and clean out of the water, as if she had been a sea-bird rushing to take wing, and the next, sinking entirely out of sight, hull, masts, and rigging, behind an intervening sea, that rose in hoarse thunder between us, threatening to overwhelm both us and her. As for the transports, the largest of the three had lost her fore-topmast, and had bore up under her foresail; another was also scudding under a closereefed fore-topsail; but the third or head-quarter ship, was still lying to windward, under her storm staysails. As for the merchant-vessels, they were nowhere to be seen, having been compelled to bear up in the night, and to run before it under bare poles.

"At length, as the sun rose, we all got before the wind, and it soon moderated so far, that we could carry reefed topsails and foresail; and away we all bowled, with a clear, deep, cold, blue sky, and a bright sun, overhead, and a stormy leaden-coloured ocean, with whitish green-crested billows, below. The sea continued to go down, and the wind to slacken, until the afternoon, when the Commodore made the signal to send a boat's crew, the instant it could be done with safety, on board the dismasted ship, to assist in repairing damages, and in getting up a jury-fore-topmast.

"The damaged ship was at this time on our weather-quarter; we accordingly took in the fore-topsail, and presently she was alongside. We hailed her, that we intended to send a boat on board, and desired her to heave to, as we did, and presently she rounded to under our lee. One of the quarter-boats was manned, with three of the carpenter's crew, and six good men over and

above her complement, and lowered, carefully watching the rolls, with all hands in. The moment she touched the water, the tackles were cleverly unhooked, and we shoved off. With great difficulty, and not without wet jackets, we got on board, and the boat returned to the Torch. The evening when we landed in the lobster-box, as Jack loves to designate a transport, was too far advanced for us to do any thing towards refitting that night, and the confusion, and uproar, and numberless abominations of the crowded craft, was irksome to a greater degree than I was willing to allow, after having been accustomed to the strict and orderly discipline of a man-of-war. The following forenoon the Torch was ordered by signal to chase in the south-east quarter, and hauling out from the fleet, she was soon out of sight.

"There goes my house and home,' said I, and a feeling of desolateness came over me, that I would have been ashamed at the time to have acknowledged. We stood on, and worked hard all day in repairing the damage sustained during the gale.

"At length dinner was announced, and I was invited, as the officer in charge of the seamen, to go down. The party in the cabin consisted of an old gaisened major with a brown wig, and a voice melodious as the sharpening of a saw. I fancied sometimes that the vibration created by it set the very glasses in the steward's pantry a-ringing; three captains and six subalterns, every man of whom, as the devil would have it, played on the flute, and drew bad sketches, and kept journals. Most of them were very white and blue in the gills when we sat down, and others of a dingy sort of whiteybrown, while they ogled the viands in a most suspicious manner. Evidently most of them had but small confidence in their monyplies, and one or two, as the ship gave a heavier roll than usual, looked wistfully towards the door, and half rose from their chairs, as if in act to bolt. However, hot brandy grog being the order of the day, we all, landsmen and sailors, got on astonishingly, and numberless long yarns were spun of what what's his name of this, and

666 Shall we shake a reef out of the main and mizen topsails, sir, and set the mainsail and spanker. The wind has lulled, sir, and there is a strange sail in the north-west that seems to be dodging us-but she may be one of the merchantmen after all, sir.'

"Never mind, Mr Leechline,' said our gallant captain.

"Mr Bandaleir-a song if you please.'

"Now the young soldiers on board happened to be men of the world, and Bandalier, who did not sing, turned off the request with a goodhumoured laugh, alleging his inability with much suavity; but the old rough Turk of a tar-bucket chose to fire at this, and sang out-' Oh, if you don't choose to sing when you are asked, and to sport your damned fine airs'

"Mr Crowfoot'

66 6

Captain,' said the agent, piqued at having his title by courtesy, withheld.

"By no means,' said Major Sawrasp, who had spoken- I believe I am speaking to Lieutenant Crowfoot, agent for transport No. - wherein it so happens I am commanding offi

cer-80'

"Old Crowfoot saw he was in the wrong box, and therefore hove about, and backed out in good time

"We now all went on deck, and found that our suspicious friend had shortened sail, as if he had made us out, and was afraid to approach, or was lying by until night-fall.

66

Sawrasp had, before this, with the tact and ease of a soldier and a gentleman, soldered his feud with Crowfoot, and, with the rest of the lobsters, was full of fight. The sun at length set, and the night closed in ("very prosaic all that," quoth Bang) when the old major again addressed Crowfoot.

6

"My dear fellow, can't you wait a bit, and let us have a rattle at that chap? And old Crowfoot, who never bore a grudge long, seemed much inclined to fall in with the soldier's views; and in fine, although the weather was now moderate, he did not make sail. Presently the commodore fired a gun, and shewed lights. It was the signal to close.

Oh, time enough,' said old Crowfoot-what is the old man afraid of? Another gun-and a fresh constellation on board the frigate. It was 'an enemy in the northwest quarter.'

"Hah, hab,' sung out the agent is it so? Major, what say you to a brush-let her close, eh?-should like to pepper her-would'nt youthree hundred men, eh ?'

and presently disappearing behind the stormy heavings of the roaring sea, the rising moon shining brightly on her canvass pinions, as if she had been an albatross skimming along the surface of the foaming water, while her broad white streak glanced like a silver ribbon along her clear black side. She was a very large craft of her class, long and low in the water, and evidently very fast. It was now evident, from our having been unable as yet to get up our foretopmast, that she took us for a disabled merchantman, which might be cut off from the convoy.

"By this time we were all on deck -the schooner came bowling along under mainsail and jib, now rising,

"As she approached, we could perceive by the bright moonlight, that she had six guns of a side, and two long ones on pivots, the one forward on the forecastle, and the other choke up to the mainmast.

"Her deck was crowded with dark figures, pike and cutlass in hand; we were by this time so near that we could see pistols in their belts, and a trumpet in the hand of a man who stood in the forerigging, with his feet on the hammock netting, and his back against the shrouds. We had cleared away our six eighteen-pound carronades, which composed our starboard broadside, and loaded them, each with a round shot, and a bag of two hundred musketballs, while three hundred soldiers in their foraging jackets, and with their loaded muskets in their hands, were lying on the deck, concealed by the quarters, while the blue jackets were sprawling in groups round the carronades.

"I was lying down beside the gallant old Major, who had a buggler close to him, while Crowfoot was standing on the gun nearest us; but getting tired of this recumbent position, I crept aft, until I could see through a spare port.

"Why don't the rascals fire?' quoth Sawrasp.

"Oh, that would alarm the Commodore. They intend to walk quietly on board of us; but they will find themselves mistaken a little,' whispered Crowfoot.

"Mind, men, no firing till the . bugle sounds,' said the Major.

The word was passed along. "The schooner was by this time ploughing along within half pistolshot, with the white water dashing

away from her bows, and buzzing past her sides-her crew as thick as peas on her deck. Once or twice she hauled her wind a little, and then again kept away for us, as if irresolute what to do. At length, without hailing, and all silent as the grave, she put her helm a-starboard, and ranged alongside.

"Now, my boys, give it him,' shouted Crowfoot- Fire!'

"Ready, men,' shouted the Major, Present-fire!'

"The bugles sounded, the cannon roared, the musketry rattled, and the men cheered, and all was hurra, and fire, and fury. The breeze was strong enough to carry all the smoke forward, and I saw the deck of the schooner, where the moment before all was still and motionless, and filled with dark figures, till there scarcely appeared standing room, at once converted into a shambles. The blasting fiery tempest had laid low the whole mass, like a maize plat before a hurricane; and such a cry arose, as if

Men fought on earth, And fiends in upper air."

Scarcely a man was on his legs, the whole crew seemed to have been levelled with the deck, many dead, no doubt, and most wounded, while we could see numbers endeavouring to creep towards the hatches, while the black blood, in horrible streaks, gushed and gurgled through her scuppers down her sides, and across the bright white streak, that glanced in the moonlight." Bang stopped

short.

"A pleasant life yours, Tom very."

"Do you know, my dear sir," rejoined, "Inever recall that early and dismal scene to my recollection, the awful havoc created on the schooner's deck by our fire, the struggling, and crawling, and wriggling of the dark mass of wounded men, as they endeavoured, fruitlessly, to shelter themselves from our guns, even behind the dead bodies of their slain shipmates-without conjuring up a very fearful and harrowing image."

"And what may your ugly image be, my dear boy?" said Aaron.

"Were you ever at Biggleswade, my dear sir ?"

"To be sure I have," said Mr Bang.

"Then did you ever see an eelpot, with the water drawn off, when the snake-like fish were twining, and. twisting, and crawling, like Brobdignag maggots, in living knots, a horrible and disgusting mass of living abomination, amidst the filthy slime at the bottom ?"

"Ach-have done, Tom-hang your similies. Can't you cut your coat by me, man? Only observe the delicacy of mine."

"The corby craw for instance," said I, laughing.

"Ever at Biggleswade !" struck in Paul Gelid.

66

'Ever at Biggleswade! Lord love you, Cringle, we have all been at Biggleswade. Don't you know," (how he conceived I should have known, I am sure I never could tell,) "don't you know that Wagtail and I once made a voyage to England, aye, in the hurricane months, too-ah-for the express purpose of eating eels there, and Lord, Tom, my dear fellow,"-(here he sunk his voice into a most dolorous key)" let me tell you that we were caught in a hurricane in the Gulf, and very nearly lost, when, instead of eating eels, sharks would have eaten us-ahand at length driven into Havannahah. And when we did get home"(here I thought my excellent friend would have cried outright)-" Lord, sir! we found that the fall was not the season to eat eels in after all-ah

"But fire we still did; no sailor has the least compunction at even running down a privateer. Mercy to privateersmen is unknown. 'Give them the stem,' is the word, the curs being regarded by Jack at the best as highwaymen; so, when he found we still peppered away, and sailing two feet for our one, the schooner at length, in their despera tion, hauled her wind, and speedily got beyond range of our carronades, having all this time never fired a shot. Shortly after this we ran under the Rayo's stern-she was lying to.

"Keep close in my wake then, sir,' rejoined the captain, in a gruff tone, and immediately the Rayo bore up.

"Next morning we were all carrying as much sail as we could crowd. By this time we had gotten our jury foretopmast up, and the Rayo, having kept astern in the night, was now under topsails, and topgallant sails, with the wet canvass at the head of the sails, shewing that the reefs had been freshly shaken out-rolling wedgelike on the swell, and rapidly passing us, to resume her station ahead. As she passed us, she made the signal to make more sail, her object being to get through the Caicos passage, into which we were now entering, before nightfall. It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon. A

fine clear breezy day, fresh and pleasant, sometimes cloudy overhead, but always breaking away again, with a bit of a sneezer, and a small shower. As the sun rose there were indications of squalls in the north-eastern quarter, and about noon one of them was whitening to windward. So 'hands by the topgallant clew-lines' was the word, and we were all standing by to shorten sail, when the Commodore came to the wind as sharp and suddenly as if he had anchored; but on a second look, I saw his sheets were let fly, haulyards let go, and apparently all was confusion on board of her. I ran to the side, and looked over. The long heaving dark blue swell, had changed into a light green hissing ripple.

"Zounds, Captain Crowfoot, shoal water-why, it breaks-we shall be ashore.'

"

"Down with the helm-brace round the yards,' shouted Crowfoot; that's it-steady-luff, my man;' and the danger was so imminent that even the studding sail haul yards were not let go, and the consequence was, that the booms snapped off like carrots, as we came to the wind.

"Lord help us, we shall never weather that foaming reef there-set the spanker-haul out-haul down the foretopmast stay-sail-so, mind your luff, my man.'

"The frigate now began to fire right and left, and the hissing of the shot overhead was a fearful augury of what was to take place; so sudden was the accident that they had not had time to draw the round shot. The other transports were equally fortunate with ourselves, in weathering the shoal, and presently we were all close hauled to windward of the reef, until we weathered the easternmost prong, when we bore up. But, poor Rayo! she had struck on a corral reef, where the Admiralty charts laid down fifteen fathoms water; and although there was some talk at the time, of an error in judgment, in not having the lead going in the chains, still I do believe there was no fault lying at the door of her gallant captain. By the time we had weathered the reef, the frigate had swung off from the pinnacle of rock on which she had been in a manner impaled, and was making all the sail she could, with a fothered sail under her